An Oddly Quiet Christmas
by insidejokes
Summary: Just a tag to Higher Power... in October... sigh. I don't even know what I'm doing anymore.


_WHY SHOULDN'T I WRITE A CHRISTMAS STORY IN OCTOBER? I just really like Christmas, okay? _

_*sigh*_

_This is a tag to Higher Power, hope you enjoy! Review?_

_Disclaimer: DENSI is on my Christmas list. Mostly because I don't own them. At all. :(_

* * *

Sometimes, silence was louder than words. As Kensi sat on the balcony of her crappy hotel room, she knew that for a fact.

Oh- there was plenty of noise. Waves hitting the shore, footsteps in the hallway, and voices of tourists and locals as they partied into the late- or rather, early hours of the morning.

She would have killed to be celebrating with them, or to have anything to celebrate at all. She'd come to Hawaii, hoping to follow up with Joe about her father. In her mind, she'd imagined everything coming together, had allowed herself to dream of finally letting her father rest in peace. All she had to do was follow up on some new leads, as if this was any other case; when in reality, it couldn't be further from one.

Maybe that was why this hurt so much. She was completely and utterly alone on Christmas Eve- and of her own choosing, too. Reluctantly, she allowed her thoughts to drift to her partner. Kensi knew that Deeks would have celebrated with her, had she asked. Had she let him, he probably would have come with her to Hawaii, too. She could have been having a perfectly wonderful Christmas, had she not been so utterly determined to find her father's killer, once and for all.

And look where it got her.

She really had to stop thinking about her partner. Turning in her plastic deck chair, she gazed at the phone on top of her nightstand. It took all of her willpower not to dash to the phone and call the airline to book a flight back home; or maybe her partner, just to hear his voice.

So much for not thinking about him.

Kensi lay back in her chair, closing her eyes. Then the plastic chair leg broke, and she fell onto the ground.

Merry Christmas, Kensi.

* * *

He was stupid enough to think that it might've become a regular thing.

Last Christmas, when she'd come to the shelter with him, he hadn't been able to take that ridiculous, beaming smile off his face the entire night, no matter how hard he'd tried.

Plus, she looked really good in a santa hat.

This year, he thought, they'd leave the shelter early. He'd even gone to the trouble of digging out his old, fake Christmas tree, stringing on a few lights. He'd bought the beer and ice cream, and rented Miracle on Thirty-Fourth Street.

Which was why, as he sat alone in his living room at 11:30 on Christmas Eve, he felt like such an idiot.

Why was she in _Hawaii_?

Deeks picked up the remote and paused the movie, which had been playing for the past hour. His eyes flickered over to the phone, and he stared longingly. It would be so easy to call, just a partner wanting to say Merry Christmas...

No. That would be crossing all sorts of the lines that they so carefully avoided. She went on vacation for a reason, and she didn't need him bothering her in the middle of the night. Besides, he thought bitterly, she was probably out with some hunky Hawaiian guy. A surfer.

"I'm a surfer." Deeks said out loud, and Monty raised his head, staring at him.

Great. Now even his dog thought he was crazy.

Maybe he was- nothing was stopping him from going out. It wasn't too late. He could still find someone... Sighing, he pressed play on the remote. He could find someone, anyone, but the only person he really wanted to find was out of his reach.

He really was an idiot.

* * *

Two days later, she arrived back in Los Angeles. Tired and weary, she shouldered her bag and walked through the gate. The first thing she saw was him, standing by the gate with that trademark grin on his face.

She could have ran into his arms.

She could have told him how she would have given anything to be with him that Christmas.

But because she was Kensi, and he was Deeks, she shoved her duffel bag into his arms, and said "You better have donuts in the car."

They met each other's eyes for a brief moment, then she walked past him, and he stood for a moment, arms cradling her bag.

He could have caught her in a huge bear hug.

He could have told her that he'd saved the beer and ice cream so that they'd have it for their next movie night.

But instead, he smirked to himself, shaking his head before jogging to catch up with her in the midst of the holiday travellers, returning to normal life.

Because she was Kensi, and he was Deeks- and really, they both knew, even if they didn't say it.

As they pulled out of the parking lot, as they relaxed into their familiar 'thing', and as she fought a smile at the box of her favourite donuts waiting on her seat... they both knew. They were Deeks and Kensi, and at the end of the day, they were partners.

And sometimes, silence was louder than words.


End file.
